The self-described creator of Bitcoin, Craig Wright, prevailed in a case before the US Appeals Court on Thursday involving disputed cryptocurrency valued at billions of dollars.Judges on the Eleventh Circuit stated that Wright, who has claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the author of the white paper proposing the blockchain-based currency, was not in a legal partnership with the late David Kleiman when they ostensibly mined bitcoin together more than ten years ago.
Appeals Court judges stated that the Kleiman estate, now represented by David’s brother Ira, “has not shown that the court relied on an erroneous legal standard or made a clear error of judgment” in overturning sanctions imposed on Wright for having “wilfully obstructed” the legal process, as defined by the lower-tier District Court.
The verdict supports a Florida jury’s 2021 ruling regarding the Kleiman estate’s claim to half of the bitcoin mined, which was reportedly valued at billions of dollars.Judges said that although Wright’s attorneys shouldn’t have questioned the Kleimans about their fraternal ties, it didn’t materially affect the jury’s decision-making.The $100 million that Wright was previously ordered to pay to Kleiman’s company, W&K Info Defense Research, on which a separate dispute is still pending, was not covered by the appeal.
In order to reclaim control of the cryptocurrency that his company, Tulip Trading, believes it has lost access to, Wright has filed a lawsuit against a group of cryptocurrency developers in the United Kingdom for their refusal to incorporate a backdoor mechanism in a bitcoin-based software.Wright’s claim to be Nakamoto led Norwegian judge Helen Engebrigtsen to rule in 2022 that it was reasonable to label him a “fraud” and “scammer.” The ruling has since been appealed.